Put some Polynesian paradise in your life.
By Lori Acken, ReMIND Magazine
Who doesn’t love the notion of a tropical escape? Seaside thatched huts, grass skirts for the ladies and flowery shirts for the gents, a potent umbrella drink in a quirky cup and those big-nosed, blockheaded statues. Admit it. You feel better already just reading the words. Though the Tiki trend flourished in the ’50s and ’60s, Americans never really lost their taste for a homegrown bit of Polynesian idyll, and Tiki bars still thrive across the country — including modern incarnations of two legendary outposts. Here’s our primer of Tiki-culture history, hot spots, signature drinks and more to get you in the spirit of the islands wherever you are.
Why Tiki?
In a word — escapism. When American servicemen returned home from World War II, they brought along tchotchkes and memories of exotic South Pacific islands that were so, so different from home. One of them, James A. Michener, turned his experiences into the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tales of the South Pacific, which was made into the beloved 1949 musical South Pacific by Rodgers & Hammerstein. At the same time, Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian adventurer with no sailing experience, assembled a balsa-wood raft he called Kon-Tiki after an Inca chief and piloted it from Peru to Polynesia, capturing the adventure — and moviegoers’ imaginations — in an Oscar-winning 1951 documentary also called Kon-Tiki. Soon Tiki fever raged, bolstered when Hawaii — America’s own Polynesian paradise — earned statehood in 1959. City dwellers and suburbanites embraced it with equal fervor, bedecking their homes with thatch-roofed basement bars, surfboard-shaped coffee tables, little plastic hula girls and carved wooden statues of Inca gods, and replacing Manhattans and Gin Rickeys with fruity, boozy, rum-based libations as cocktail party beverages of choice.
Don The Beachcomber
In 1933, Texas-born Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt — a bootlegger with a case of wanderlust — opened a laid-back little restaurant that would turn Hollywood on its ear. From its quirky name “Don the Beachcomber” to its torches-and-rattan décor to its — and this part is key — potent rum punches and exotic (at least to landlocked Americans) eats. As more American soldiers returned stateside with an affection for all things Polynesian, Tiki culture became all the rage and Don the Beachcomber was ground zero for a beachy good time — leading Gantt to change his mouthful of a birth name to simply Donn Beach.
Trader Vic’s
A year after Don the Beachcomber opened its doors, Victor Jules Bergeron Jr. debuted his own Polynesian joint in San Francisco, briefly named Hinky Dinks, then polished to Trader Vic’s. Hours apart, Donn and Vic each did booming business, fostering a friendly rivalry that culminated in both claiming credit for the pinnacle of all Tiki drinks, the Mai Tai — a take on maita’i, the Tahitian word for “good.” A testament to the notion that a good idea — especially one that deals in rum-soaked escapist fun — endures, Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s franchises remain open to this day.
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